Best Posts in Thread: Cyber Bullying Isn't Real.

Thank you for this constructive post in this debate. You raised lots of good points.

 

So if I say mean hurtful things to you and taunt and insult you in real life, you're self-victimizing because you can walk away from me?

okay

 

i can't believe we still have to have debates about whether it's ok to be jerks to each other or not.

 

What some people seem to forget is that a lot of cyber bullying can also directly translate to real life. No, they aren't saying mean things straight to your face, but what's said about you online can and most likely will directly impact the way others see you. Even though you yourself may have the ability to close your computer and avoid that situation, it's nearly impossible to avoid everyone around you in real life who now shares that negative opinion of you and still maintain a proper style of living.

Now let's say that the bullying has no connection to your real life, for example being bullied on minecraft. For starters, would you walk away from all your friends here on meep just because 1 person is bullying you (assuming none of the rules were in place like a lot of places on the internet)? Personally, I wouldn't. One bully for me wouldn't be enough to drive me away from my other friends. Unfortunately, that's not the case for everyone. Some people would not be able to deal with that bully, and would leave the server entirely. Think of the potential people you might never have met if that were allowed. We are lucky to have a community that has 0 tolerance towards bullying. Then there are those who despite the bully, would continue to play on meep, because of how much they enjoyed coming on and seeing their friends each day, but deep down would still feel the impact of what's being said. Sometimes, there is no escaping the bully.

Overall, I think that people need to understand that what's bullying for one, might not be bullying to another. Just because you yourself wouldn't have cared about that one person calling you names, doesn't mean that another person will see it the same way. You can't "chose" not to be impacted by what another person is saying, and with how integrated the internet has become to our society, "the internet is not the place for you" is not a good argument.

Cyber bullying is very real, and can cause major damage to others self-esteem and overall quality of life.

 

Thanks for identifying that I am not his mother. I never knew that! I thought I gave birth to him the entire time. But now I'm well informed, thank you.

I was just explaining to a person what something meant lol? If that makes someone a mother than I must be a mother of a million people.

 

So do people have to quit the game or whatever they're doing just to escape the bully?

People shouldn't have to quit doing what they love just to "get away" from a bully.

(edit: If you're going to reply with "mute them", what if you can't mute people on the game you love, not easy to just say "find a new hobby", people shouldn't have to do that)

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 15, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 15, 2017 ---

Those are minor things, You can't just say Cyber-bullying is not real because of minor bullying, think of the major bullying. This can damage a persons self-esteem and can actually lead to much worse things.

 

Cyber bullying is definitely real. Yes if you continue to interact with someone who is harassing you, it is self-victimizing, but someone shouldn't have to completely leave a social platform because of a bully. It doesn't matter how you bully someone, whether it's irl or behind a screen. If it hurts someone, its bullying.

 

Alright folks, I have a real tale of cyber bullying.

During the prehistoric times of no World Wide Web you connected "online" by dialing into a local server via telephone / modem. These platforms were called BBSes, and they hosted a chat program and variety of text based games.

This one game we were all addicted too, me, my dad and most people on this particular BBS, Tele-Arena. This was the first game I had ever played in my life and it became a big part of my youth. But the thing about this Tele-Arena was it had a player called Slayer, a master-certified chess player and most evil / polite troll there was. He would rob you in this game, kill you, and generally make the game unplayable during certain times.

However, things came to a head and the players because to push back, except outside the game. They would call his phone all day everyday, stalk him in real life and try to ruin relationships he had. It had gotten so bad that he had a nervous breakdown and essentially disappeared.

Today - You simply have the option to chalk it up to an idiot, and ignore what is being said.

 

In some cases, you cannot leave.

For example, there are many cases where the person gets cyber bullied by people they know in real life, through texting/social media etc. They will do anything to harass you, even when you change accounts/block/report them. Cyber bullying is real, but it's just that in most cases, it's not really a cyber bullying situation.

 

I never thought I'd agree with you on something.

 

I chuckled at a couple of these. These pictures were clearly made by older people who can barely even grasp what "the social networking" is.

 

...or phone screens.

Anyway, I agree with @TheNachoLife, it's real. Doesn't matter if it's physical, verbal, or cyber, if you're damaging someone's feelings over and over again, it's bullying. And doing that over a computer screen [or phone screen] is just as bad as doing it in real life.

 

Public figure or not, the harassment will stay the same.

 

Why is being a public figure different? Do they have different emotions than the rest of us? If you are a public figure, yes you do have to deal with hate, its part of the job, but you shouldn't be stalked and threatened (however unrealistically).